Young Inuk's life story hits screens
Writer/director calls it 'A love story to my daughter'
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, November 28, 2016
IQALUIT/LOS ANGELES
Heaven's Floor - a film now making the rounds at festivals, winning awards, and causing viewers to shed tears - is a labour of love.
Malaya Qaunirq Chapman, left, with her mother, writer/director Lori Stoll, at the Virginia Film Festival, showing their film Heaven's Floor. - photo courtesy Lori Stoll |
"At the end of the day, it's a love story to my daughter," said Los Angeles writer and director Lori Stoll.
Stoll met Nunavut's Malaya Qaunirq-Chapman by chance during a photographic expedition to the territory.
On the tundra on skis and very ill-equipped, her travelling companions left her behind at an emergency shack. Stoll thought she would die there.
But along came Malaya and her uncle. The story that follows depicts Malaya's life in Pangnirtung, Lori's life in California, and how the two became mother and daughter.
"In the very, very beginning when I first moved to L.A., we talked about how Lori wanted to write a book," says the real-life Malaya, now 28 and living in Iqaluit.
"But years passed and we thought, 'What about making a movie?' Lori came to visit me and started talking about a film and started talking with Justin (Ford, Malaya's roommate and best friend). They both have a passion for films. Lori talked Justin into making a film."
"I knew we had a good chance of pulling something like this off," said Ford, one of the film's producers. "We had to give it a shot."
That led Stoll to attend art college for script-writing.
"It (the past) is, for the most part, exactly how it's shown in the film. But, obviously, in an hour-and-a-half, to tell the story you have to crunch things together. Sometimes real life is not as exciting or crazy as what can happen in a film or a story that you read. There are some things that were changed to make it into a good film," said Ford.
Heaven's Floor, which is said to be "based on a true story," begins with Julie - Lori's fictional name - making her way to the Arctic and the events leading to her first meeting with Malaya. She ends up in Pangnirtung for a time after she is saved and the two bond.
"She was a great kid. It was just her. I took a leap of faith and went. It's not like, 'I think I'll go and find an Inuit child.' I don't think I knew what an Inuit person was. There was just something about her. Maybe it was fate."
In the film, we see an orphaned Malaya, a suicide in the hamlet, Malaya's great-grandmother telling Julia/Lori she should take Malaya with her, and the struggle the two experience to make that a reality.
Fictional account or not, Malaya says the film is really personal.
"Through the entire shooting of the film, I had to disconnect myself entirely from the character of Malaya and let Katie May (Dunford) embody Malaya, and do it how she would do it artistically," Qaunirq-Chapman said. "She's so amazing. She was 11 at the time. She never, not once, ever complained about whether she was cold, tired or hungry."
Dunford won Best Actress for the film at the El Dorado Film Festival in Arkansas. Dunford, as it happens, is Malaya's cousin.
"It was not intentional, but she was the best person for the part," said Stoll.
Heaven's Floor was shot in Iqaluit in winter, as well as in Los Angeles. Qaunirq-Chapman says some parts were a bit harder to watch being filmed.
"But I had to shove that deep down inside somewhere else to ensure that we get the day done. And that means ... putting aside your feelings. And that's being professional, too," she said.
"As we're talking about this I'm reflecting back, the idea of it may seem very emotional but it was so snap, snap, snap. Next, next, next. Some of my deep, dark emotional events in life that have happened were being shot in front of me, but I disconnected myself because I was thinking about what I have to do next..."
Ford interjects and explains near-impossible logistics of filming in Nunavut, and Malaya continues:
"Justin and I were at different locations making miracles happen," she said, "where we were told every single time, 'No, you can't do this. No, you can't do that.' OK, so how can we do it?"
Qaunirq-Chapman, the film's executive producer, and Ford are talking about 16-and-a-half long days filming in the Nunavut capital in early 2014 - a location without the infrastructure for shooting film. Even the camera (with its 4K anamorphic lenses) had to wear a Canada Goose parka to stay warm in -40 C.
The five days of shooting in L.A. were a breeze in comparison, said Malaya.
The pair first watched a draft of the film in their Iqaluit apartment, but it was at the Canadian premiere at the Edmonton International Film Festival that it all came home for Malaya.
"It was emotional," she said. "And it got a good response, People were very supportive."
Heaven's Floor is currently touring the festival circuit, with awards starting to pile up. At the Napa Valley Film Festival, it won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature, which came with a $10,000 cash prize.
Qaunirq-Chapman, Ford and Stoll are in discussions for the film's wider release.
Stoll says Malaya is an inspiration.
"She clearly had some struggles when she was really little. By letting us show them in the film, other girls can be inspired. It gives her a platform. She wants girls to get educated and feel like they have power in their lives and that they get to make their own choices," said Stoll.
And, as a fun bonus, Qaunirq-Chapman and Ford get to rub shoulders with the stars.
